PNG Open 2025 Round Up
The dust has settled on the first event for the new season where Cory Crawford fired a final round 65 to come from five strokes back to capture his third PGATA title and second PNG Open. Cory’s final round 65 gained 8.25 strokes vs the field and is the highest SG figure to win an event since Brett Coletta shot 61 (9.44 SG) to come from eight back and eventually win the TPS Hunter Valley via play-off in February 2023.
This year Royal Port Moresby played significantly harder than in 2024 thanks to blustery conditions all four days. The stroke average for the field was 74.48 in 2025 vs 72.62 in 2024 (+1.86 RTP). For the second year in a row, Morgan Annato was the sole local to make the cut. In 2024 Annato finished solo 44th and with a total Strokes Gained figure of 0.68 over four rounds. In 2025 his T34 equated to 4.45 SG over four rounds which is an improvement of nearly a full stroke per round. Those that finished similar to Morgan’s 2024 finish this year (T43) gained a total of 2.45 strokes in a superior field so his improved finish position is much stronger than it suggests. I hope he gets his crack at Q-School next year.
Another dynamic introduced this season is the US Stage Q-School graduates and those that finished 7th - 20th and have joined the Tour without a category. I’m interested to see how the US based players perform versus their Australian Q-School counterparts throughout the season as it’s more difficult to play away from home, and they did not have to qualify via a “First Stage” or any qualification criteria outside of paying $2,090 USD.
Two graduates from the US played in PNG, Chris Malec and Ty Gingerich. Chris made the cut, finishing T46, and Ty missed the cut by 3 strokes and finished T67. In comparison, 18 Q-School graduates from the Aussie stage competed of which ten made the cut (Douglas Klein retired after sitting T2 on Thursday). We also had eight players from the US QS without an exemption category, four of whom made the cut. Scotty Kennon was the best of these finishers with a T38. 14 players from Australian Q-School that did not qualify for an exemption category teed it up, eight made the cut. The SG figures for each group can be viewed on the table below. After one event, both groups from the Australian stage lead the US by 1.25 strokes and 0.94 strokes per round.
| R1 & R2 | Rounds | R3 & R4 | Rounds | Total Ave | Rounds | Difference | |
| Aus Q-School Graduates | +2.09 | 33 | +0.09 | 20 | +1.34 | 53 | +1.25 |
| USA Q-School Graduates | +1.28 | 4 | -2.31 | 2 | +0.09 | 6 | |
| Aus Q-School Tournament Members | +0.68 | 28 | -0.18 | 16 | +0.36 | 44 | +0.94 |
| USA Q-School Tournament Members | +0.91 | 16 | -3.56 | 8 | -0.58 | 24 |
Invites into the NT PGA Championship have been given to the eight US-based players that are without a category so I will continue to track this.
Last season, a new category was added which awarded a start to the leading three players on the Order of Merit inside the top 50 players at the time of each event. The new category essentially replaced the single tournament exemption given to up to five players finishing within the previous event’s top 10. This was a great initiative by the Tour as it rewards longer-term performance and players without a category can parlay their way into a full playing schedule. As mentioned in the previous article, James Conran did this last season which eventually culminated in his first victory on the PGATA.
Plenty of guys without status need to play well early in the season in order to shoot their way into the next event. Andre Lautee carded the lowest round of 64 on Sunday and moved up 29 spots to 7th. I asked if possible future starts were on his mind going into the final round:
Lautee: “It definitely was. I thought that I was too far back going into the final round but I figured if I shoot -6 I’d be a chance for that category so when I shot -8 I knew I’d probably get it. It’s actually been on my mind since I missed out at Q-School earlier in the year. Seeing a couple of guys basically ride out most of last season in that category gave me some hope that I can do the same.”
Lachie Aylen narrowly missed advancing to the final stage of Q-School after losing in a playoff for the final spot back in April. Lachie has played well on the Pro-Am circuit and currently sits 18th on the National Order of Merit which is a possible avenue to a tour card, however that won’t help him gain starts in the current season. A strong showing in Papua New Guinea was required.
Aylen: “Yeah I basically had it in my mind that I’d be pulling out of the rest of the events this side of Christmas if I didn’t get into Darwin, and just save up money and focus on Asian Q-School in December.”
Lautee and Aylen sat atop the Leading 3 Players from the Top 50 at the conclusion of the PNG Open. After some withdrawals, Lautee has since made it into the NT PGA Championship on his own number but the valuable Order of Merit points will hold him in good stead for other events moving forward, and has a greatly boosted his chances of reaching the magic number to be included in the midseason re-rank. 140.29 points are required from Full Tournament Members to be included, in which Andre now has 31.00.
Prize Money has not been included on the PGA website for the PNG Open (hopefully this is not the norm moving forward), so here are the full pay outs for anyone interested.
| Pos. | Player | Score | Prize Money |
| 1 | Cory Crawford | -11 | $40,500.00 |
| T2 | Zach Ion | -7 | $13,297.50 |
| T2 | Jake McLeod | -7 | $13,297.50 |
| T2 | Ben Henkel | -7 | $13,297.50 |
| T2 | Will Florimo | -7 | $13,297.50 |
| T2 | Lincoln Tighe | -7 | $13,297.50 |
| 7 | Andre Lautee | -6 | $6,952.50 |
| T8 | Jared Edwards | -5 | $5,782.50 |
| T8 | Corey Lamb | -5 | $5,782.50 |
| T10 | Wil Daibarra | -4 | $3,785.63 |
| T10 | Louis Dobbelaar | -4 | $3,785.63 |
| T10 | Lachlan Barker | -4 | $3,785.63 |
| T10 | Jay Mackenzie | -4 | $3,785.63 |
| T10 | Andrew Campbell | -4 | $3,785.63 |
| T10 | Joel Mitchell | -4 | $3,785.63 |
| T16 | Nathan Barbieri | -3 | $2,565.00 |
| T16 | Cooper Eccleston | -3 | $2,565.00 |
| T16 | James Marchesani | -3 | $2,565.00 |
| T16 | Mako Thompson | -3 | $2,565.00 |
| T20 | Cameron Harlock | -2 | $2,232.00 |
| T20 | Josh Armstrong | -2 | $2,232.00 |
| T20 | Lachlan Aylen | -2 | $2,232.00 |
| T20 | Jordan Doull | -2 | $2,232.00 |
| T20 | Gavin Fairfax | -2 | $2,232.00 |
| T25 | Quinnton Croker | -1 | $2,047.50 |
| T25 | Peter Cooke | -1 | $2,047.50 |
| T25 | Jack Munro | -1 | $2,047.50 |
| T28 | James Conran | +1 | $1,935.00 |
| T28 | Harrison Crowe | +1 | $1,935.00 |
| T30 | Tyler Wood | +2 | $1,800.00 |
| T30 | Max Charles | +2 | $1,800.00 |
| T30 | Doong Gyu Han | +2 | $1,800.00 |
| T30 | William Bruyeres | +2 | $1,800.00 |
| T34 | Max Ford | +3 | $1,642.50 |
| T34 | Braden Becker | +3 | $1,642.50 |
| T34 | Christopher Wood | +3 | $1,642.50 |
| T34 | Morgan Annato | +3 | Amateur |
| T38 | Christopher Fan | +4 | $1,462.50 |
| T38 | Lucas Higgins | +4 | $1,462.50 |
| T38 | Jack Pountney | +4 | $1,462.50 |
| T38 | Scotty Kennon | +4 | $1,462.50 |
| T38 | Andrew Richards | +4 | $1,462.50 |
| T43 | Blaike Perkins | +5 | $1,282.50 |
| T43 | Jason Hong | +5 | $1,282.50 |
| T43 | Daniel Fox | +5 | $1,282.50 |
| T46 | Chris Malec | +6 | $1,164.38 |
| T46 | James Mee | +6 | $1,164.38 |
| 48 | James Tauariki | +8 | $1,091.25 |
| T49 | Joseph Owen | +9 | $1,023.75 |
| T49 | Brock Healy | +9 | $1,023.75 |
| 51 | Dylan Gardner | +10 | $956.25 |
| T52 | Viraj Garewal | +11 | $918.00 |
| T52 | Ben Carpenter | +11 | $918.00 |
| T54 | Jimmy Zheng | +14 | $860.63 |
| T54 | Charlie Dann | +14 | $860.63 |
With his win Crawford moves comfortably into the top 20 (up 12 to #16) on the PGATA Tour Rankings and announces himself as a strong Order of Merit contender for 2025/26. Zach Ion flew up 85 positions to #47 after a tied runner-up finish and continues the fine form he has enjoyed on the Pro-Am circuit in the off-season.
A little refresher on how the rankings work -
Rankings Points are awarded based on field strength on the same scale as Order of Merit points. Field strength is based on the average number of OOM points earned from the previous year’s Top 50 in similar events. In standard PGATA events (male only Band 1 events) over the past two seasons, those from the Top 50 scored an average of 13.29 points per event (18 events). The 2025 PNG Open had a high average (26.16 points) mainly due to the winner being from last season’s Top 50 which moves the average to 13.97 from 19 events. Across all events the average per player is 14.81 points, so a player will earn ~1.08x (14.81 / 13.97) Rankings Points in relation to their OOM points. Cory Crawford earned 205.50 points for his win.
Top 100
We move on to the NT PGA Championship next week which will be televised for the first time (I think?). And the return of JEFFREY GUAN.
Speak soon. xx